DENVER  Except for all those field goals, that's how you want to win a game.

A balanced offense, with Jacob Hester and Mike Tolbert running out the clock at the end. A defense, at times malleable but stout when it mattered and ultimately dominant. Kick coverage teams that not only didn't allow disaster to strike again but were almost impenetrable.

"The thing we've been talking about throughout the year is keep trying to play a complete game," head coach Norv Turner said after the Chargers took over first place in the AFC West with a 32-3 victory over the Broncos. "Last week I said I thought it was our most complete game. I think this was our most complete game."

Even a thoroughly dominant performance needs a break.

The Chargers, up 13-0, got one in the second quarter.

On the first drive piloted by Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton, who did not start due to a sprained ankle, an apparent touchdown by Knowshon Moreno was stymied inches short when Denver guard Russ Hochstein's knee hit the ball and knocked it from Moreno's grasp before the back could cross the goal line. Steve Gregory recovered the ball in the end zone, his second fumble recovery of the game, the other coming on the first drive of the game after Shaun Phillips sacked Chris Simms.

Those were the first two of four times inside the red zone the Broncos would fail to score a touchdown.

Due to their own inability to put the ball in the end zone more than three times in six drives inside the Denver 12-yard line, the Chargers weren't entirely comfortable until a 1-yard run by LaDainian Tomlinson put them up 20-3 in the middle of the third quarter -- or maybe not until even after that.

"I didn't feel like that until we went up 26-3," Tomlinson said. "When we were up 20-3, they had moved the ball too easy. I said, `Guys, this ain't over.'‚"

But the Chargers defense didn't allow points on drive after drive, the coverage teams didn't allow Eddie Royal to run for anything close to the two touchdowns he had against them in October, and a new-look Chargers offense broke the Broncos.

Back-to-back Sundays in which the Chargers not only won but kept ascending in crucial areas lends credence to their internal feeling thinking that they are on one of those late-season rolls.

"No question," quarterback Philip Rivers said of these past two games representing the best the Chargers have played this season.

He added: "At probably the most crucial point."

Some simple statistics, by way of comparing, tell much of the story.

A month ago in San Diego, the Broncos sacked Rivers five times. Yesterday, they did not sack him and touched him just once, that resulting in a roughing-the-quarterback penalty. Rivers was sacked 15 times in the season's first five games and just five times in the past five games.

Through five games, the Chargers were allowing more than 27 points a game. Through the past five, they're allowing less fewer than 14.

Perhaps the biggest sign of the Chargers rounding into the team they wanted to be is that they have achieved balance in their offense.

After not doing so in the first five games of the season, the Chargers have run more times than they've passed four of the past five games. Yesterday, in running a season-high 43 times for a season-high 203 yards, they were dominant.

"That's our style of football," left guard Kris Dielman said. "That's what we all (the offensive linemen) like to do. We controlled that game. When we wanted to run, we ran. When we wanted to throw, we threw."

Through all those early games in which the Chargers were reliant relied on the big play, Turner swore he wanted to run the ball.

"We're becoming a more complete offense," Turner said. "This is the first time we've been in that position where we could just wear on someone, grind on them. I think we'll build on that."